MEDITERRANEAN CRUISE 2025

It's September 2025 and we have set off on a cruise from Southampton to Istanbul and back. The whole trip will take 31 days. We are aboard the Sky Princess which is the same ship as we sailed on to Canada last year. Today we arrived at our first port of call which is Vigo in the Spanish province of Galicia.

The name "Vigo" comes from the Roman "Vicus" which means "village" but today it is the largest city in Galicia and one of the main ports in the world for the marketing of fish for human consumption.

The weather when we arrived was quite misty with occasional drizzle. We walked into Vigo as soon as the ship arrived in port but perhaps we should have left it until after lunch as the sun came out during the afternoon.

We walked up to the Castle that overlooks Vigo in order to get good views over the bay. However, the higher we climbed the more we got into the clouds and drizzle so the views weren't particularly spectactular.

The photo below is of El Sireno or The Merman. It is a sculpture by the Galician artist Francisco Leiro and was erected in 1991 in the Porta do Sol in Vigo.

Docked next to our ship was the B. A. P. Union. This is a tall ship belonging to the Peruvian Navy. It functions as a training vessel and a cultural ambassador for Peru. The ship features classrooms, a museum showcasing Peru's culture, and serves as a floating symbol of the nation's maritime heritage. They allowed visitors on board free of charge and we therefore took the opportunity to have a look around.

In 1888 after the end of hostilities between the United States and Spain, a large number of Spanish soldiers remained in Cuba and needed to return home. Their health was in very poor condition.

Between 2nd September and 6th October 1898 a number of these repatriated soldiers arrived at the Vigo estuary. The people of Vigo were deeply moved and poured their care and attention over them, showing amazing solidarity. The lack of support from public institutions to these heroic soldiers caused uprisings and the governor, fearing more riots, decided to end landings in Vigo.

The people of Vigo provided the soliders who had arrived (over 7,00) with everything that the government failed to do - food, clothing and money. Due to this the government gave the accolade "Always Charitable" to the city of Vigo and this is the name of the statue in the photo below which was installed in Vigo in 1898.